Lily Lee

Collected by Merlin Mitchell
Transcribed by Irene Carlisle
Sung by Mrs. Wm. Vaughn
(near Wayton, Arkansas)
June 15, 1950
Reel 46, Item 1
Lily Lee
(Learned from her father, who learned it from his grandmother)
Down on the shore of the sounding sea
Was the humble home of Lily Lee;
And over the deep and so far away
Went sailing her love to the (Nathan?) bay.
To diamonds to gather, diamonds and gold,
Over the waters clear and cold;
Forsaking his love that was rich and warm
For the hallowed (howling?) blast and the raging storm.
She was young and he was poor;
Both evil mind (?) in hearts endured;
Their future to God they did not trust;
They wanted it down in golden dust.
So, with a kiss and a parting thrill,
They turned their hearts by an ironed will,
He bent his back to an oaken oar
And sailed away from the sounding shore.
He sailed away, away, away,
Farther and further day by day;
He was only thinkin' of his diamonds and gold,
Of the joy and reign when he got old.
She stood on the bank with a quivering lip
And watched and wept for the sailing ship.
She watched and sighed, till it faded away
Into a vacant, desolate day.
He sailed away; away he went,
Saying, "I never will repent;
The awful sea will give up her dead
Before I'll return without treasures to wed."
He ofttimes had scary dreams at night;
He saw a terrible, ghastling light;
A coffin a-drifting about on the sea,
And on it the name of Lily Lee.
"Why need such visions trouble my mind
While safe she's walking the shore behind?
It never could have been this change,
For a corpse, a shroud, in such a state."
Lily Lee (Cont.)
Reel 46, Item 1 (Cont.)
He looked from the deck with a heavy sigh,
But nothing could he see but water and sky;
One thought went back to the pleasant past
As he laid his hand on the bending mast.
Then, a many a long year a-tosting about,
The old ship started on her homeward route.
And now said he, with infant glee,
"I'm bound for the home of Lily Lee."
He worked and gained; the strife was o'er;
Was rich he stepped on sounding shore,
To fly away to the beloved cot
To find it a bare and desolate spot.
The stones of the wall were scattered in blocks;
The door, of hinges it was wrecked;
The elm branch swings swift by his hair;
A hooting (?) in the streets, "Not here, not here."
Then through the village to a field
In a spray of clover (?) he did leap;
A cleansed (?) child just lying in his grave,
All covered with flowers in the month of May.
Twenty graves he had already passed
When suddenly he stopped with an eye agaze;
He bent to his knees with a hallowed moan;
Before him a name on the marble stone.
He wiped his eyes from a single tear;
And spelled those letters, they were there;
He read them again, and what did he see?
"For sweet remembrance of Lily Lee."
Too late, too late, with diamonds and gold;
Her heart is ashes and her love is cold;
The harness of love he found in his need;
Alas, alas, for a sounding sea.
— i c —

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Collected by Merlin Mitchell
Transcribed by Irene Carlisle
Sung by Mrs. Wm. Vaughn
(near Wayton, Arkansas)
June 15, 1950
Reel 46, Item 1
Lily Lee
(Learned from her father, who learned it from his grandmother)
Down on the shore of the sounding sea
Was the humble home of Lily Lee;
And over the deep and so far away
Went sailing her love to the (Nathan?) bay.
To diamonds to gather, diamonds and gold,
Over the waters clear and cold;
Forsaking his love that was rich and warm
For the hallowed (howling?) blast and the raging storm.
She was young and he was poor;
Both evil mind (?) in hearts endured;
Their future to God they did not trust;
They wanted it down in golden dust.
So, with a kiss and a parting thrill,
They turned their hearts by an ironed will,
He bent his back to an oaken oar
And sailed away from the sounding shore.
He sailed away, away, away,
Farther and further day by day;
He was only thinkin' of his diamonds and gold,
Of the joy and reign when he got old.
She stood on the bank with a quivering lip
And watched and wept for the sailing ship.
She watched and sighed, till it faded away
Into a vacant, desolate day.
He sailed away; away he went,
Saying, "I never will repent;
The awful sea will give up her dead
Before I'll return without treasures to wed."
He ofttimes had scary dreams at night;
He saw a terrible, ghastling light;
A coffin a-drifting about on the sea,
And on it the name of Lily Lee.
"Why need such visions trouble my mind
While safe she's walking the shore behind?
It never could have been this change,
For a corpse, a shroud, in such a state."
Lily Lee (Cont.)
Reel 46, Item 1 (Cont.)
He looked from the deck with a heavy sigh,
But nothing could he see but water and sky;
One thought went back to the pleasant past
As he laid his hand on the bending mast.
Then, a many a long year a-tosting about,
The old ship started on her homeward route.
And now said he, with infant glee,
"I'm bound for the home of Lily Lee."
He worked and gained; the strife was o'er;
Was rich he stepped on sounding shore,
To fly away to the beloved cot
To find it a bare and desolate spot.
The stones of the wall were scattered in blocks;
The door, of hinges it was wrecked;
The elm branch swings swift by his hair;
A hooting (?) in the streets, "Not here, not here."
Then through the village to a field
In a spray of clover (?) he did leap;
A cleansed (?) child just lying in his grave,
All covered with flowers in the month of May.
Twenty graves he had already passed
When suddenly he stopped with an eye agaze;
He bent to his knees with a hallowed moan;
Before him a name on the marble stone.
He wiped his eyes from a single tear;
And spelled those letters, they were there;
He read them again, and what did he see?
"For sweet remembrance of Lily Lee."
Too late, too late, with diamonds and gold;
Her heart is ashes and her love is cold;
The harness of love he found in his need;
Alas, alas, for a sounding sea.
— i c —